It seems, from the following, that even some of the most learned and orthodox, in their more sober reflective moments cannot resist the conviction that Heaven is a literal place. Our very nature craves a literal, tangible reward. We cannot fix our eye upon an immaterial mark. And we are not stimulated to run after an imaginary price. Those who have no hope of a real, tangible inheritance in the world to come, are led to supply the demand of their natures by fixing their minds and hearts on earthly treasures. We read of “things above,” “invisible things.” “He that overcometh shall inherit all (these) things.” The promised reward will be gloriously literal, and literally glorious. Even so, Amen.
M. E. CORNELL.
The noted editor and author, Dr. Wm. A. Alcott says:—
“It is impossible for me, after the strongest effort, to get away from the thought of something material, as connected with spirit, even though it were nothing but a thin cloud or vapor. Heaven with me in spite of my philosophy, is a place, and has a throne, and one who sits on it in unutterable majesty. And it is on this account, as well as for many other reasons, that I rejoice to find it revealed in the Bible, that God has been made manifest in the flesh, seen by men, and received up—for aught we know, in some sort of a body—into glory. With me, the Saviour, in condescension in part to human weakness, seems to be interposed between the Father and us, as a sensible object. Instead, therefore, of regarding it as image worship, to think of the Deity, at least in the person of the Beloved Son, as possessing a body—however refined, immortalized and glorified,—I have counted it a great and unspeakable privilege that in my meditations, contemplations and prayers, I might regard the Saviour as possessing a glorified body; so that when I look away to the eternal throne, toward which my best feelings aspire, I may have something tangible on which the mind’s eye can rest.”